Moms for Liberty on the Move
Moms for Liberty is a parents’ rights group founded in Florida during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has quickly grown to approximately 200 chapters in 42 states and has more than 100,000 members. The grassroots organization’s website describes it as “moms, dads, grands, aunts, uncles, friends” who support freedom and parents’ rights. Its founders are Tiffany Justice and Tina Descovich, self-described “moms on a mission to stoke the fires of liberty.” Both women are former school board members who witnessed firsthand “how short-sighted and destructive policies directly hurt children and families.”
In an interview with Education Reporter, Tiffany Justice explained that she and Descovich both served as school board members, but she found that after four years, she “could not accomplish what she wanted to accomplish on a broad scale.” She decided to forgo another school board race, and she and Descovich together founded Moms for Liberty.
Justice emphasizes that the organization is not top-down driven, and that individual chapters have the autonomy to operate according to their state laws and the requirements of their local school districts. The chapters are organized by county. “When counties are large and include a number of school districts,” she explains, “parents are designated as district leads. But to be clear they are still set up by county in chapters. Wherever we have a chapter, parents become very involved and are making a difference.”
She points to the state of Pennsylvania as a particular success story for the organization. “Pennsylvania is amazing for the number of chapters that are operating and the level of parent engagement.”
An example of the issues Moms for Liberty tackles is Social Emotional Learning (SEL), which Justice describes as “horrible.” She explains that SEL “tries to get kids to ignore their instincts and turn against their parents and the values they’ve been taught at home. It turns them against what they know instinctively is right and good.
“It destabilizes the child,” she continues. “It opens kids up to indoctrination.
“We support parental rights,” she asserts, “but parents don’t have the right to abuse their children. They DO have the right to be informed about destructive curricula like SEL so they can make good decisions for their children.”
In recent years, a number of other education-focused conservative voices have warned about SEL. In its September 2018 issue, Education Reporter wrote: “One way social and emotional learning is cropping up in schools has to do with normalizing the abnormal. Some schools are not only subjecting students to drag queens ... but students and parents whose moral compasses tell them something is amiss are subjected to harassment and re-education under the guise of SEL.”
In the mainstream media crosshairs
The coast-to-coast expansion of Moms for Liberty has caught the attention of the mainstream media. An op-ed on The Hill.com admitted that the organization has “been portrayed unflatteringly ...” The Washington Post charges that they are hoping to take advantage of “brawlish ... cultural divisions.” Another Post article claims parents are “seeking control over education” and “taking over school boards.”
But the Post appears to forget that the right of parents to direct the upbringing and education of their children is implicit in America’s founding documents and traditions, and that concerned parents should be represented on school boards. “Through our county and district-based chapters,” Justice notes of her organization, “we’ve had success with school board elections.”
Yet another article in the Post (notice a pattern?) claims these are “anti-woke” school board victories that have turned “usually nonpartisan races” into something “contentious.” Yet many would argue that if indeed these races have become “contentious,” the policies of woke school boards are the cause.
A fourth Washington Post article asserts that these victories could ‘deliver chilling effect[s] on racial equity efforts,’” but more likely their concern is that parent-friendly school boards may bring an end to CRT indoctrination. Other mainstream media have also piled on Moms for Liberty, including the New York Times, USA Today, and others.
Mid-term school board election successes
On November 10, The Blaze reported that “grassroots parental rights groups achieved school board victories across the country” in the November 8 midterm elections. The article cited both Moms for Liberty and the 1776 Project PAC for the wins, although not all races were settled at press time.
The 1776 PAC reportedly endorsed four candidates in Brandywine, Michigan, who were ultimately successful in flipping the school board majority to conservatives, and the PAC similarly facilitated a flip in the Carroll County school board race.
Moms for Liberty supported 67 school board candidates in Florida, of which 41 were victorious. The Daily Caller News Foundation (DCNF) credited the organization with flipping not only school boards in Florida, but also several in Maryland, Indiana, Michigan, and the Carolinas. Tiffany Justice told the DCNF: “We’re thrilled. We were able to endorse over 500 parental rights candidates so far this year with 270 on the [mid-term] ballot. For us, starting an organization a little less than two years ago, and then having chapters across the country that have vetted and endorsed candidates in 270 races was a really big deal...”
Moms for Liberty join Dr. Phil
During an appearance last month on the popular Dr. Phil television show, Justice and co-founder Descovich were attacked by progressive activists, including Equality Florida Executive Director Nadine Smith, over Florida’s Parental Rights in Education law. Signed by Governor Ron DeSantis last March, the law bans classroom instruction on “sexual orientation” or “gender identity” in kindergarten through third grade.
These activists then falsely accused Moms for Liberty of attempting to “ban books” and of “smearing teachers.” Justice and Descovich refuted the fallacy that they are against teachers, but said their rebuttal to the charge did not air during the program. Descovich later told Fox News: “We were not criticizing teachers. No! We are not against teachers. We were school board members during the pandemic. We know what was thrown at teachers.”
The two sides also debated the appropriateness of certain materials found in classrooms, and what role parents should have in their kids' education. Justice and Descovich said Smith “came armed with a list of hit statements.”
When Education Reporter inquired about the feedback the moms received following their Dr. Phil appearance, Justice said “In general it was overwhelmingly positive. In general, [it] was a great opportunity. And Dr. Phil agreed with us. I think he was surprised at how the government thinks it can usurp parents’ rights in the education of our children.”
She added that at one point he asked the other side “what makes you think you know better than a parent about what should happen to a child when they have a life-determining decision about gender or anything else?”
The Parent Pledge
A hallmark on the Moms for Liberty website is its Parent Pledge, which the organization encourages parents, community members, elected officials, and others to sign. The Pledge reads:
I pledge to honor the fundamental rights of parents including, but not limited to the right to direct the education, medical care, and moral upbringing of their children. I pledge to advance policies that strengthen parental involvement and decision-making, increase transparency, defend against government overreach, and secure parental rights at all levels of government.
As Justice told Fox News: “We are failing a generation of children and we have to do better, and Moms for Liberty is just working to try to shine the flashlight on that.”
Education Reporter could not agree more.
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